LOS ANGELES, Dec 10 — New Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounted for nearly 70 per cent of new COVID-19 cases in the United States in the latest week, according to estimates released Friday by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
BQ.1.1 was estimated to make up about 36.8 per cent of circulating variants in the week ending Dec 10, and BQ.1 was estimated to make up 31.1 per cent, according to CDC data, Xinhua reported.
The two variants are descendants of Omicron’s BA.5 subvariant. They have been growing especially fast since October.
At the beginning of October, each of the two new variants accounted for about 1 per cent of new infections in the United States. They have replaced BA.5 to be dominant strains in the United States in mid-November.
